The Mech Touch

Tusa was being a bit unfair to himself.

Recently ascended ace pilots generally had little chance of surviving an encounter with a greater phase lord by himself.

In fact, the Arena Lord of Ya'gwasa would have fought a lot more aggressively and put the Dark Zephyr in much greater peril if the latter had not retrieved the tier 3 Destroyer spear.

Although the nunser phase lord openly despised the weapon and how it was being used by the Dark Zephyr, the wiley old alien leader never took the Destroyer spear lightly in his actions.

His long experience had taught him better than to underestimate any weapon or opponent. Just because he did not agree with his opponent's combat approach did not mean he could defeat it with ease.

It was this habitual caution and respect that encouraged the Arena Lord to hold back his aggression and prevent himself from making any mistakes that his much more lethal opponent could exploit with devastating consequences.

The end result was a stalemate, which could already be considered a victory for Saint Tusa. To use a junior ace mech to stall a greater phase lord was a fantastic bargain that the Bluejay Fleet eagerly took advantage of to take care of other threatening enemies.

It took a lot of mechs, warships and weapons of mass destruction to hold back the Distance Shaper as well as the 5 arche phase lords!

Although the Arena Lord occasionally had to be pushed back by the mighty Rosfield Cannons, the Dark Zephyr was already doing a pretty good job at keeping the Arena Lord occupied to the point where he did not have the room to lend aid to his cosmopolitan and alien subordinates.

Alas, the inherent pride and confidence that all halfgods accrued over their extraordinary careers prevented Tusa from taking satisfaction at this 'victory'.

What made perfect sense in terms of strategy meant little to a champion who largely preferred to deal with absolutes!

To an ace pilot like Tusa, there was only winning or losing.

He lacked the age and young years of experience to temper his expectations and adopt a more realistic viewpoint like that of the Messenger of Silence.

Yet his relative youth and lack of tempering from reality also served as his sources of strength, as it became relatively easier for him to impose his willpower on reality when he did not know any better.

The more Tusa struggled against the greater phase lord, the more his resonance strength repeatedly moved beyond its previous peak.

His endurance lasted longer as his increasing unwillingness to let himself get stalled and denied by his opponent strengthened his desire to liberate himself from his lack of competence!

As the clash between the Dark Zephyr and the Arena Lord of Ya'gwasa continued to rage in the distance, Ves was getting ready to undertake his own challenge.

The 5 lesser phase lords hailing from the arche race were clearly not as weak and servile as the pet arche captive that Gloriana occasionally involved in her work.

Hekkel was a mere alien engineer who ranked at the lower end of the hierarchy of his race.

His archeshell happened to feature a beautiful aquamarine crystal look, but it was not that strong or special by the standards of his species.

The 5 arche lesser phase lords on this battlefield were completely opposite in this regard. They had climbed to the top of the hierarchy and enjoyed the worship of lots of arche. They had access to bountiful phasewater and other precious materials, which they largely used to develop their archeshells and grow their true bodies until they turned into hardy organic bulwarks.

Ves had closely observed how much punishment they endured since they approached Fort Rock.

The lesser phase lords had resisted far more damage than a typical battleship or protected city could withstand. They endured dozens of antimatter missiles and numerous horrible torpedoes by relying on the power of phasewater and their unique biological gifts.

It made sense for aliens that resembled turtles in a vague way to excel in defense, but the sheer amount of damage they managed to mitigate was frankly ridiculous!

While all of the successive bombardment had stripped their spatial barriers and cracked their shells, the damage did not really go any deeper than that. It would take far more weapons of mass destruction to finish the job.

The first-class multipurpose mechs that had managed to beat the crap out of the enemy mechs and phasefighters tried their best.

Their firepower was quite potent. Armed with at least a dozen integrated weapons, they could easily threaten small craft and warships when they banded together, but their weapons fire failed to inflict any serious damage to the lesser phase lords.

It was only when they closed in and allowed their space suppressors to weaken the transphasic properties of the archeshells that they proved a little more effective, but there was a limit to how much they could accomplish.

Phase lords were intrinsically merged with the phasewater circulating in their true bodies. It was a lot harder to suppress their activity, especially by small mechs who could only produce relatively limited space suppression fields.

What was worse was that the arche phase lords were not completely defenseless.

So far, they clearly showed that they had put all of their development opportunities into enhancing their defenses. They had spent very little time and effort on honing their offensive and maneuvering capabilities.

That did not mean they had no defense against mechs. When a trio of first-class multipurpose mechs had activated their plasma swords and intended to swoop in so that they could carve new holes into the damaged archeshells, parts of the shell lit up before they emitted powerful laser beams that inflicted so much damage that the first-class multipurpose mechs quickly lost their azure energy shields and started to suffer serious damage to their exterior!

They only managed to get away with damaged but intact frames when other mechs with support functions quickly reinforced their defenses and helped them beat an emergency retreat!

Ves twitched his lips. He did not look forward to getting blasted by those lasers.

It was moments like these that separated true fighters from the amateurs.

As far as he was concerned, Ves was in no way a pure amateur, but he was not a proper fighter either. He fell awkwardly in between, making everything about his decision to take to the field uncertain.

It made sense for him to take action, though. The enemy phase lords might not have the weapons to break open Fort Rock, but their strong and hard archeshells already served as adequate tools to break open a space fortress!

The 5 arche phase lords continued to maintain their ball shapes while using parts of their shells to blast powerful laser beams at the circling first-class multipurpose mechs.

The killing power of this self-defense measure was not too great, but they were powerful enough to deter me from first-class multipurpose mechs and keep them at a distance.

This was not a good development. They needed more fire support, but everyone else already had their hands full with trying to contain or defeat the other enemy assets.

The addition of an extra combatant could make all the difference. Ves felt an obligation to step up. If he did not possess the strength of a phase lord, then he may be able to excuse himself.

That was not the case.

Since he possessed the raw strength to play a useful role on the battlefield, he could not shirk his duty and allow others to die on his behalf without lifting a finger.

Besides, the Bluejay Fleet may very well lose if he did not take action in person!

This was what he told himself as he launched from Fort Rock in his giant, armor-clad form.

He felt awfully vulnerable even though he attracted remarkably little attention. Even the confidence gained from receiving two decades worth of dedicated weapons training became awfully fragile when the reality of his actions truly sank into his mind.

This was anything but his first time participating in a battle, but there were factors that made this situation different from others.

Was it the lack of support from the expeditionary fleet and many other dependable Larkinsons?

Was it because he was about to fight against 5 lesser phase lords that had already proven themselves to be more hardy and resilient than himself?

Or was it because he wanted to prove his honor and valor, but feared he might not be able to uphold his own expectations?

Ves gripped his relic weapon harder. The Oceancaller proved to be far inferior to a third order living mech in terms of cooperating with him. The cold and callous weapon never developed a strong sense of friendship or camaraderie with its current wielder, and felt no obligation to provide him with any moral support.

His lips twitched again. He once again received a reminder that he did not deserve to wield the Oceancaller.

The replica of a once-legendary ancient relic desired to be used by a more compatible and worthy wielder.

Ancient cultivators would describe this as letting the precious relic be wielded by its destined user, but it all came down to the fact that the Oceancaller did not like Ves, or to be more precise, his domain.

The best possible wielder would be a woman who shared many of the same qualities as the Mistress of the Oceans.

The probability that a person like that would show up one day and give Ves a reason to gift her the powerful flute was miniscule.

"Perfection does not exist in reality." Ves reminded himself.

His wife may vehemently disagree on this premise, but this was what he believed.

"You are mine." He said with a possessive tone. "I will take care of you later, but now you need to work with me. I am about to channel a lot of darkness energy through your body. Do not resist. Let it flow through your structure and help me unleash it towards our enemies. Do not shame your pedigree by adding a loss to your record!"

If he wanted to perform at his best, he needed to be in charge of the Oceancaller. He could not afford the slightly willful and petulant weapon to dictate their relationship.

Fortunately, his brief pep talk seemed to hammer home in the high-level relic. Its intelligence may not be as sophisticated as his living mechs, but he knew his way around them just enough to master the Oceancaller for the time being.

His greater sense of control over his weapon infused him with a shot of courage.

Instead of letting it expire by procrastinating further, he decided to pull the trigger and go on the offensive!

He charged forward and began to perform one of his recently acquired extraordinary staff techniques by holding it like a lance and flying forward with the single-minded determination to impale his target!

As his giant armored form rapidly closed in on the ball of archeshells, Ves silently executed the technique that would help him draw out more darkness energy from the environment as well as the Blinkyverse!

His efforts yielded results as the forward top of the Oceancaller already began to spawn a speartip composed of dangerous and corrosive darkness energy!

Though Ves was not entirely certain how much damage it could do, he could not afford to back off at this point.

Just as he was able to cross the remaining distance and drive his empowered weapon into one of the cracks of the archeshells facing his direction, his opponents finally responded to his actions.

The 5 arche phase lords simultaneously activated specific phasewater organs and produced a strong spatial push that diverted Ves' charge at the last second!

This not only caused him to miss his charge attack, but also collide against the archeshell surface in an unanticipated collision!

"OUCH!"

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